Replacing 85/15 S with 57/08 - wiring question

[h-pr]

I would like to replace the 85/15 S bridge pickup in my PRS SE Custom 24 with a 57/08 treble pickup.

However, I'm a bit confused because the wire colors are not the same on these two pickups.

The 85/15 S has black (ground), red (hot), and green and white (soldered together and to the push/pull pot for coil tap).
The 57/08 has braid (ground), black, red and white.

The 57/08 pickup came without a wiring schematic, only a note to check https://www.prsguitars.com/schematics, but that link does not work, and https://www.prsguitars.com/support/schematics does not provide helpful information for this pickup/guitar combination.

Any help as to how I am supposed to connect the 57/08 pickup? Which wire on the 57/08 corresponds to which on the 85/15 S?

 

[gush]

Go to prs site and look up wire diagrams for a guitar that has the 5708 and switching similar to your se. Then look up the diagram for your exact guitar and compare the two. That should be enough info to figure it out.

 

[h-pr]

As I said above, that's what I tried to do, but the wiring diagrams on the PRS site are not helpful in any way.
It would be helpful just to know which wire on the 57/08 pickup is which.

 

[garrett]

White and Black are start/finish and Red is the series connection between the two coils. Bare is shield.

So: bare to ground. Red to push/pull. Black and White: one to ground, one to hot, depends on which way is in phase with the neck pickup.

 

[h-pr]

Thanks.

In the meantime, I was able to confirm that for the treble pickup:

bare/shield = ground
black = hot
white = ground
red = coil tap

Works nicely.

 

[h-pr]

I have now also replaced the bass pickup, for which the black and white wires are connected conversely.

So for replacing the 85/15 S with 57/08s, the wires must be connected as follows:

Bridge (treble) pickup....... || Neck (bass) pickup...........

85/15 S.... | 57/08.......... || 85/15 S.... | 57/08..........
red........ = black. = hot... || red........ = white. = hot...
black ..... = white. = ground || black...... = black. = ground
white+green = red... = tap... || white+green = red... = tap...
............. shield = ground || ............. shield = ground

 

[Mikey Schoolcraft]

How did you wire the tap? I tried the exact connection with red on the push pulls but they don’t activate the coil tap can u send pictures of your wiring?

 

[scott_]

Replaced the 58/15 pickups on my CE-24 with 57/08 pickups and it worked perfectly on the first try. Why? Because I love the CE24 neck, but I want vintage tone. Yes, I am feelin’ lucky and please don’t shoot. Other than the leap of faith in using partial information from sketchy internet forums, the most difficult part was working with the super fragile tiny wires of the 57/08 pickups.

This is the 57/08 wiring info I used...

Neck (bass) 57/08:

• white = hot
• black = ground
• red = tap
• shield = ground

Bridge (treble) 57/08:

• black = hot
• white = ground
• red = tap
• shield = ground

What you will need:

• High enough IQ to follow these instructions and a low enough IQ to proceed after reading these instructions.
• About 3.5 inches of some kind of ground wire. To make it look pro, use a solid nickel strand like you would use to ground the pots together on a strat. However, any wire about 18ga or better would probably work fine.
• A hot soldering iron. Use a very hot soldering iron, so the solder melts quickly and you don’t melt and burn wires, switches, and pots before the solder melts.
• Some low temp solder.
• Small needle nose pliers to hold the wires while you solder.
• Optional: small wire ties and various size shrink tube.

Remove the 58/15 Pickups:

1. Take a picture of the unaltered insides for the luthier who you will take your expensive f’d up guitar to for fixing your mistakes.
2. At this point, it would be best to remove the vol pot, tone push/pull pot, and 3-way switch from the guitar, so they can be maneuvered outside of the cavity while soldering and de-soldering. I did not. I left them mounted to the guitar, which required me to do some soldering acrobatics, that in hind-site were unnecessary trouble.
3. Find the two white wires coming from the neck and bridge pickups connected to the push/pull pot. These are the 85/15 coil split wires. Note that with the push/pull pot still mounted to the guitar body, the coil split wire from the neck is on the terminal nearest the wood and the 3-way switch. The coil split wire from the bridge is on the opposite terminal nearest the wood and the volume pot. De-solder these wires from the push/pull tone pot.
4. De-solder the connection of the two pickup wire braids that is about half-way to the 3-way switch.
5. De-solder the neck pickup braid from the volume pot cover/ground.
6. Find the two thicker black wires that are inside the braid and connected to the 3-way switch. These the “hot” wires from the 85/15 pickups. Note that with the 3-way still mounted to the guitar body, the hot wire from the neck is the on the terminal closest to the bridge, and the hot wire from the bridge is closest to the jack. De-solder these wires.
7. Remove the pickup rings. Then remove the 85/15 pickups from the rings.

Install the 57/08 Pickups:

1. Mount the 57/08 pickups to the rings, then mount the rings to the guitar. If you need me to tell you to put the treble by the bridge and the bass by the neck, then stop here and take your guitar to a professional. I coiled the pickup leads one turn before routing them through the holes, because that’s the way PRS installed my 58/15 pickups.
2. Take the braids from both 57/08 pickups, the black wire from the 57/08 neck pickup, and the white wire from the 57/08 bridge pickup, and solder them all to one end of the 3.5 inch ground wire that you got because I said you will need it. Since those 57/08 black and white wires are so tiny and delicate, I soldered them to the ground wire about 1/8 inch from where I soldered the braids.
3. At this point, I put shrink tube over the bundle of connected ground wires, to keep them from bending/breaking while I continued to work, but it’s not 100% necessary.
4. Solder the red coil-split wire from the bridge pickup to the terminal on the push/pull tone pot that would be nearest the volume pot, if the push/pull tone pot were mounted to the guitar.
5. Solder the red coil-split wire from the neck pickup to the opposite terminal on the push/pull tone pot.
6. Solder the black “hot” wire from the bridge pickup to the 3-way switch terminal closest to the input jack (if the 3-way were mounted to the guitar).
7. Solder the white “hot” wire from the neck pickup to the opposite 3-way switch terminal.
8. Solder the end of the ground wire that is not connected to the bundle of braids and black/white wires, to the volume pot cover, where the 57/08 braid was soldered.
9. At this point the wiring is complete, and everything will work fine. I put a couple of tiny wire ties on to assist with structural integrity because those 57/08 wires are so tiny and can break so easily.
10. Put the covers and strings back on and cross your fingers. Mine worked perfectly!

 

[Muzicpro]

I put the 57/08 pups in my S2 this weekend along with a new harness by RS Guitarworks. Something I’m now realizing is that the original 85/15s pups are 4 wire and the 57/08 is 3. That means that I lose the out of phase sound when in single coil (or I live with them being out of phase for both single and hum). I’m assuming if one uses a 5 way blade they can wire up both sounds “easily”.

 

[garrett]

I put the 57/08 pups in my S2 this weekend along with a new harness by RS Guitarworks. Something I’m now realizing is that the original 85/15s pups are 4 wire and the 57/08 is 3. That means that I lose the out of phase sound when in single coil (or I live with them being out of phase for both single and hum). I’m assuming if one uses a 5 way blade they can wire up both sounds “easily”.

PRS have not used out of phase for a very long time, since way back in the 80's.

But you're right, your 85/15 S pickups allow you to reverse phase back and forth with a switch (they are four-conductor). Your 57/08's are always in phase with each other unless you perform surgery on one of them to permanently reverse its phase, like a magnet flip (these pickups are single-conductor with tap).

 

[GuitarJammin]

I'm installing 57/08s in a Gibson SG right now....taking a break to eat a 2am snack. I'm having to hook them up with that PCB board....fun.

 

[GuitarJammin]

Done...darn SG standard pickguards make you have to do a complete setup....anyways....the guitar sounded killer!! Huge upgrade.

 

[ColonelForbin]

I paid my luthier (RIP Jimmy! he was awesome...) to swap out the Korean #7S pickups in my semi hollow S2 with 57/08 pickups.
LOVE THEM!! I also had him change the selector to 5 way. I absolutely love the position 2 now. I tend to live alot on the bridge pickup; but yeah - the 57/08 are an awesome upgrade.
I never quite liked the 3-way with p/p coil split.

 

[JasonE]

I changed the pickups in my 594 over to 57/08 pickups that I bought from the PRS store. I learned the hard way that they don't wire them all the same. I had put a set of 57/08 pickups in my SAS that came out of a limited run guitar. With those pickups as well as the ones I removed from that guitar, the white wire was the tap wire. On the new ones that I bought that I put in my 594 it was the red wire that is the tap. I had to contact PRS when they didn't work to find this out.

 

[ColonelForbin]

I paid my local shop to swap the #7S pickups out of my S2 semi, and put 57/08 in. Also had them remove the S2 tone and volume pots, and the 3-way blade, to replace with core volume, tone, and 5-way blade. Love, Love, Love this guitar now. The 57/08 pickups are awesome. I way prefer the 5-way blade, over the 3-way with p/p.